Riding the bench

A caller this week left a voice mail stating it would be interesting to see what percentage of area high school athletes go on to the next level.

That person's feeling was if we took in all 14 schools in our coverage area, the percentage would be somewhat higher than both the state and national norm.

In question form that would be tough to answer without really delving into it, but apparently the state standard is about 3 percent; while 2 percent on the national side. Quite possibly we are a percentage point or two higher.

What we do know is we have a good number of athletes playing in college, and many of those are pretty successful at it.

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For instance, here are just a few of those athletes who have been in the news lately:

- Jessie Miller (Harbor Springs, 2000) recently completed her junior tennis season at Hillsdale University, earning a couple of post-season honors. Miller was named the team's most valuable player after going 7-6 at No. 1 singles. Miller earned second-team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors. She also played on the No. 1 doubles team. Miller was an All-Stater in high school where she played all four years at No. 1 singles for the Rams.

- Tarn Leach from East Jordan (2000) and Ryan Newsted from Petoskey (1999) both ran in the Big Ten cross country championships Saturday. Leach, a junior, finished 26th for the University of Michigan in 25 minutes, 0.8 seconds, and was the Wolverines' sixth finisher. Newsted, running for Michigan State as a freshman, was 60th in 25:46.9, seventh out of 10 Spartan runners. Wisconsin won the title for a fifth straight time by totaling 40 points; Michigan was second with 57; while Michigan State tied Penn State for seventh place at 218.

- Jacques Henning (Harbor Springs 2000) helped Central Michigan University win its second straight Mid-American Conference men's cross country title Saturday at Akron, Ohio. Henning, a junior, placed 17th and was Central's No. 6 runner with a time of 24:57. Central edged Eastern Michigan, 46-48, and Henning made a key contribution by topping Eastern's last three runners.

- Erin Fralick (Petoskey 2002) and her Alma College teammates advanced to the semifinals of the Michigan Intercollegiate athletic Association's women's volleyball tournament Tuesday with a 30-12, 30-9, 30-12 win over Olivet. Fralick, a sophomore middle hitter, contributed eight kills and two aces. Alma, 27-5, will face the Kalamazoo-Adrian winner Friday with the final on Saturday at Alma. The Scots also won the regular season title at 13-1.

- Northern Michigan's Kyle Swenor (Petoskey 1999) continues to let it fly as quarterback for the Wildcats. Last week he connected for four touchdown passes in Northern Michigan's 35-24 come-from-behind win against Michigan Tech. He also set a Superior Dome record for completions with 35 in 47 attempts for 392 yards and no interceptions. His scoring passes went for 42, 13, 11 and 2 yards. For the season, he has thrown for 2,483 yards and 18 touchdowns with 17 interceptions. Northern visits unbeaten Saginaw Valley State Saturday in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Association game. The Cardinals, 9-0, are ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II poll. Northern is 3-6 overall.

- Two Northland College (Ashland, Wis.) soccer players from the area will be playing in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference tournament semifinals this weekend.

On the men's side, Julian Scott (2003, Harbor Springs), scored a goal in a first-round win over Crown College, 2-1. On the women's side, Ashley Bingaman (2003, Petoskey) scored in a 6-0 first-round win over Presentation College. The men's team, 7-12 and seeded fourth, now plays top-seeded Martin Luther King College; while the women, 10-10, face top seeded St. Scholastica.

Just a note here, sometimes it can be a challenge digging up information because Web sites in a lot of cases are not up to date or are next to impossible to get to. That's where mom and dad can help out as in some of the cases above.

Parting shot:

- Lisa Carlson, Charlevoix's junior varsity girls' basketball coach, ran in the New York Marathon on Sunday and finished 10th among female runners from Michigan with a time of 4 hours, 1 minute, 38 seconds. Other area entrants who completed the run were Michele and Dan Sturt, along with Jacqueline Lerch, all of Petoskey.

- Petoskey will host a Class A girls' basketball district game on Tuesday, Nov. 17. The opponent? You guessed it, unbeaten and Big North Conference leader Traverse City West, 17-0. Winner of that game goes to the semifinals, which are being hosted by Traverse City Central.